Canadian Cooperative Wool Growers AGM Oct. 21 in Lethbridge

With the annual general meeting of the Canadian Cooperative Wool Growers (CCWG) on the horizon, the current state of the wool industry with southern Alberta has been a topic of conversation for stakeholders, vendors and consumers.

On Oct. 21, the annual general meeting of the CCWG will be taking place at the Lethbridge Lodge at 1p.m. General Manager of the CCWG, Eric Bjergso says that along with hearing from stakeholders and updates on the wool industry in 2017, this year’s meeting will be held within Lethbridge to celebrate the opening of the new facility within Broxburn. “We’re going to be talking about the new facility that we’ve just completed this spring in Lethbridge, we moved this facility from it’s place right in the city out to Broxburn. The directors and other staff will have their first opportunity to see the new facility.” “We started building it a year or so ago,” added Bjergso “So we’re having our official grand opening on the Saturday prior to our annual meeting.”The new Canadian Co-operative Wool Growers limited building recently opened this October has moved from within the city to a 1.5 acre lot in the Broxburn Business Park. This new building is home to an office as well as retail and warehouse space and is conveniently located close to both the city of Lethbridge and major livestock auctions.However, with lots on the agenda, the meeting will cover much more than just the opening of the new facility but also many branch managers will be in attendance to give regional reports on what’s transpired within their community and the latest trends and results they’ve seen. Bjergso also says that he will in attendance at the meeting to offer a full report to shareholders in attendance regarding the wool market as a whole as well as addressing small constitutional changes in bylaws.With the upcoming meeting in mind and the most recent update on the global wool market after returning from China, Bjergso says he’s happy to share that the industry has been ticking over well so far this year. “The sheep industry has been ticking over pretty good, course wool prices are a little soft but lamb prices are very strong which is great because we have around 2000 active sheep holders within the province of Alberta alone.”However, with a strong domestic and international market developing over the past year, there is concern that the dry and drought like weather that parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan have seen throughout the summer could really affect next year’s market and margin for profit. With dryer weather conditions, the amount and price of feed could take a turn for the worse and in effect cause a deplete in the number of Ewe’s within the affected areas.“The drought conditions in western Canada may really affect sheep numbers next year, where the feed is too expensive, there will be a reduction of ewe numbers,” says Bjergso of the dry weather parts of the country have faced so far, this year.“The Reality of it is due to the drought there could be feed shortages within areas such as Saskatchewan and parts of Alberta. We won’t really know that for sure yet and it won’t change any numbers for this year, but we’re keeping our eye on that situation, to see how it may impact the market next year.”With these thoughts in mind, Bjergso also went on to talk about Ontario’s similar brisk with droughts in 2016. He says that as a result of the excessively dry weather the province did see some reduction in flocks last year. However, he went on to describe that the problem began to quickly dissolve itself as numbers picked back up and producers who were temporarily forced to cut back, replaced those sheep, resulting in only temporary negative effects, not long-standing deficits.With these developments in mind, it’s very comforting for shareholders and vendors to learn that other than dry climate’s, this year has seen steady numbers and solid prices for wool markets across not only the province but the country.